Owner of the Galerie am Graben in Vienna, collector and maker Inge Ausenbaum passed away in October 2016. Without her engagement, Jewelry will have not the position in the world as it does now.

The 8th October 2016 Inge Asenbaum died at age 91.

Inge was a great developer in contemporary Jewelry. She opens her important "Galerie am Graben" in Vienna 1972. For me it was an honour to take part at her first exhibition. It was a gallery for Applied Art and after a while she started exhibiting only Jewelry. I suggested her Jewelry as a very important discipline and she also start collecting Jewelry. At the same time she helped Jewelry artists as much as she could.
In her gallery program she organized solo exhibitions by Bruno Martinazzi, Anton Cepka, Friedrich Becker, Vaclav Cigler, Elisabeth Defner, Helfried Kodré, Giampaolo Babetto, myself and many other important artists.

Inge Asenbaum was a maker. She organized exhibitions out of Vienna, such as "Schmuck - zeitgenössische Kunst aus Österreich" 1984 in Ateneo San Basso, VeniceBiennale with an exhibition installation made by Giampaolo Babetto, "Bijoux Autrichiens" into Europalia in Bruxelles. Also she was involved in the exhibition "Alles Schmuck", Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich on an installation by Zaha Hadid. She was well connected around the world, was friend of Helen Drutt, Ida Bohlen van Gelder and others.

Inge was a great collector of international Art Jewelry. Her collection, with more than 700 pieces, is now in the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, donated by Deedi Potter Rose.
Without her engagement, Jewelry will have not this position in the world as it does now. She also published a lot of catalogues for her exhibitions.